On Singing...


I love to sing. Having said that, I think most of my friends would agree with me. I sing when the Spirit says sing. Although I must say I have cut back a bit. Sometimes I get strange looks when I think I'm alone and I'm singing and someone walks in on me, for example in the kitchen. Well not always strange looks but sometimes they walk away with a funny little smile. I don't care tho, I love to sing, this is me, take it or leave it. 


I love the songs we sing at church, to me, the 10 minutes are never long enough, and it is here where even the little children add their voices, some of them even closing their eyes and moving their head to the rhythm, opening their mouths as wide as they can, especially when it is a familiar song to them. When I go over to my brother's houses Saturday evenings, and they are in the middle of singing, all the children have a songbook, regardless if they can read or not, even my little 2 1/2 year old nephew has a songbook, joining in. One of my nieces is only just starting to read German, but she has a unique way of singing along with a song she doesn't know yet, if a word has 2 syllables or more, she can guess how it will end, and usually ends up being right! I thought that was pretty awesome. 


When we sing at church, the minister recites the first line of the verse and everybody sings that line, then he does the next and so on. It always amazes me how the tune can be kept up, most ministers can actually recite the line in a singsong tune that resembles the tune of the song. And as slow going as this may be, I like it. There are colonies that have enough songbooks for everybody, so the minister doesn't bother reciting the lines of the verses, and as much as I enjoy that too, I prefer the way we do it. 


(Interesting fact I learnt about singing in church, When our forefathers were being persecuted they met in the forest and other hideaways to hear a sermon. So when they were waiting for everybody to gather, they started to sing, and this has continued to this day. Also there were not enough songbooks for everyone, so the minister recited the lines.)


The way we sing varies from colony to colony, I think we sing fast, but I have been to other colonies where they sing a lot faster than we do, and I have been to colonies that sing a lot slower than we do, quite a lot slower. Seems to me the more conservative the colony, the slower they sing. Not sure if this is a fact, but it does seem to be that way.


Almost every colony has their young people that can sing. And here it varies from colony to colony again, some just have a gift. When they sing the goosebumps run up and down my back. At my colony we used to have a choir, which kinda fell apart a few years ago, our best tenors and bass singers, married and the newer guys just weren't interested in singing. Then our girls started marrying away, and now, well when we do something we sing as a group, where our ladies sing along too, but the choir practise stopped a couple of years ago. 


Some of our boys are awesome guitar players, and this is something that is kind of iffy, musical instruments. They were unheard of, 15 years ago, but now, even tho they are still not "officially allowed, they are unofficially tolerated in the basement of our homes. I have tried to teach myself to play the guitar, but I guess it's just not in me. So I just make sure I'm around when those guys play so I can sing along. 


When we get up early to pick vegetables or go somewhere's in our bus, there is always someone or two who can pull out a little black songbook, to get us started on a morning song, Since these are songs that most of us learned to recite a long time ago when we were in german song, we don't all need a booklet, although sometimes we forget the order of the verses. :-) The first song to be suggested it usually "Auf auf my geist zu loben" and then "Mein Gott nun ist es vieder Morgen" followed by "Ermuntre dich Oh Seele mein"


Saturday evenings are times where every family sings in their homes. I love sitting outside after we are done singing and listening to the ones that are still singing. The air resounds with the strong male voices and the higher notes of the women and children. There is just a feeling of peace that surrounds me at that moment and I think this is what a glimpse of heaven would be like.


To conclude, I love to sing...

               The "Emily" books

These are by far my favorite L.M.Montgomery books! And I have read them all, of course the "Anne" books are more famous, and they are good too, they do not come close to the "Emily" books, at least in my opinion. There are those that would disagree with me, most loyal fans of L.M.Montgomery prefer the "Anne" books, and as much as I myself love Anne, there is something about Emily that awakens a kindred spirit in me. 


These books are much "darker" than the Anne books, I'm not sure why the word darker works here, but it just seems more appropriate, Emily is a more a deep thinker than Anne is, her life is so much more complicated, maybe because she actually knew her father before he died, whereas Anne never knew her parents at all. Also Emily's aunt Elizabeth is a much harder character to love than Marilla is. She is harsher with Emily, maybe because Emily's mother defied her family to run of and marry Emily's father, and her aristocratic family have never truly forgiven her for that. But duty calls, and when Emily's father dies, her mother's family rallies around to draw lots for Emily at the funeral, which Emily witnesses hiding beneath a table. Hearing the unflattering things about her father, Emily gives herself away, and this eavesdropping does not endear her to her aunts and uncles. Especially aunt Ruth, who seems to have an extra malice regarding Emily. But as the story progresses, even aunt Ruth seems to develop a fondness for Emily, this is shown to us when Emily gets herself in a scrape, where her reputation suffers, aunt Ruth rises majestically to the occasion, and "rescues" our heroine with all the style and fluster as only aunt Ruth can. Where Emily decides that she may never "love" aunt Ruth she at least comes to regard her in a different light.

We are introduced to Teddy early on as she moves to New Moon with aunts Elizabeth, aunt Laura, and cousin Jimmy, aunt Elizabeth having drawn the short straw, which means Emily will live with them, but all the other aunts and uncles will contribute to her education. Cousin Jimmy is quote: "not quite all there" having been pushed into a well by aunt Elizabeth when they were children, by accident, but Emily loves him, although there are times when he scares her when he reaches a dark place inside him.


Teddy, we are introduced to him almost right away, and there we all "know" that he is the one for Emily, all except Emily of course, but the course of love never did run smoothly and L.M.Montgomery makes sure of this by bringing in Dean Priest. This is one character whom I never did like when I was younger, I was so angry at Emily for her stupid pride and for giving in to his proposal, which came at a weak moment for her, so I can understand and maybe forgive her for allowing it to happen. But at the last moment, a month before the wedding, Emily "changes" her mind. I don't want to spoil the book for those of you who haven't read it yet, but I am eternally grateful for the "reason", even if it did give me the shivers.


Being older now, though, I can understand the attraction to Dean, there was something about him that called to something deep and mysterious inside Emily, He had been all over the world and had witness a few things which she had only ever dreamed about. Intelligent and mysterious, he is able to say the things which Emily soul longed for. But having said that, I still love Teddy for Emily, nobody can and did compare to the sweet love that they had, which of course Emily didn't know or want until it was almost too late.


There are two things which I require before I purchase a book, the first is that it has to make me cry, (and these books make me cry every time I read them.) The second, if it's a book that I read more than two times, that is a requirement right there. I read them for sure once a year, and every time I read them, esp. the last one, Emily's Quest, I cry, unashamedly and unabashedly, I cry. I tell myself, this time I won't, I know exactly what will happen and I won't cry. but here is where L.M.Montgomery is queen of the written word. I have never met anyone who has read these books and loved them, who hasn't cried. Those who haven't, only say the books were so, so. Well I guess they are missing the whole point, and the best part of them all. I can't not tell this incident, one night I was reading the last book and was right at the parts where I cry, when my brother Gary came in, I was facing away from him, (I was already in bed) and he came in and asked mundane questions of me, where I was only giving him yes and no or no answers at all. The next morning I was telling this to my sister Matilda, and telling her how I couldn't talk to him because I was crying and didn't want him to know, he overheard us. That evening he came into my bedroom again took the book from my hands and walked around where he could see my face, asking and laughing all the while if I was crying! Grrrrr! He figured I was completely nuts, but then again I don't think he ever a read a book in his life, unless he absolutely had to in school, so there is no way he would have understood. He kept doing this for about a week or so, before he finally quit, good thing I was done reading that one! I think to this day he is so sorry he didn't know to check why I wasn't talking at that time! 


When I say these books are much darker than the Anne books, I mean that L.M.Montgomery went a bit into the dark side with premonition I guess is the word I'm looking for here, Emily inherits this from her grandmother who had the "sight" as they call it. There are a number of incidents in which she unintentionally uses this. She is not comfortable with this, and would wish it otherwise. For myself, I am not comfortable with it either, I am of the mind in this day and age, "traumer sindt luenger" (Dreams are lies) but I must say they add the mysteriousness to these books, and that is part of their appeal. 


For those of you that have not read the "Emily" books yet, please do so. I can't promise you will become a fan, or will prefer them over the "Anne" books, because as far as I can see, you either love them or not. Most people prefer Anne, but there are a few Emily fans out there.


At any rate I hope you enjoy them to a point. Please feel free to comment on whether you do or not, and why or why not! 

                          Storms

I love a storm, be it a winter storm or a summer storm, there is something about them that just calls to me. I think I take after my Barbara ankela, nothing she loved more than a thunderstorm, either outside watching it or standing at the window, watching it rain.

When there is a lightning storm you can be sure I am watching from the best view point, (if it's not raining) sitting and watching the lightning and listening to the thunder. Somewhere's I read if you count the seconds between the lightning and the thunder, that's how many miles the lightning is from you, not sure how accurate that is, but I go by it. The clouds that roll in dark and ugly, the wind, the smell of rain just before it does, all part of what I love. I am usually joined by almost half of my colony, after all I think not just me inherit this love of storms from my grandma and her sister, almost all their children and grandchildren did too. 

Last year we watched a tornado cell form just north of our colony, the clouds rolling and roiling, spinning, my disappointment was (shame on me!) that no tornado actually formed from that cloud, at least not in our area. It's not that I really wish for one, but I really think I would love to be a tornado hunter! Fascinating! Of course the last storm we had I was in the basement, surrounded but 3 screaming children. If it weren't for them I would have been out there watching it, and although we didn't have a tornado we had the winds of one that was 20 minutes south of us, actually uprooted a tree right next to the house where I was cowering with the children. I wanted to go out and take pictures just when the storm hit, and if you have ever seen a hurricane on TV, that's what the trees and wind and rain looked like, it was only when my little niece started screaming at me that she was scared that I came to my senses, that I was responsible for these children and to get to that basement now!

When a storm hits late at night when I'm in bed, I pull up my shade, turn my pillow to the foot of the bed and watch from the comfort of my bed, the only thing is I have a small window so my view is limited. and that is how I fall asleep, to the rumbling of the thunder.

In winter time there is nothing better than having a blizzard when I'm safe and warm in my house. The winds howling around the corner of the house is a comforting sound. This past winter didn't leave us with a lot of snow, we only had one storm, and I was on my way to the city when it hit, wasn't all that bad, although the other people along were quite scared, for myself, if it's not a Laura Ingalls Wilder blizzard it's not a blizzard. Of course a lot of people think I'm a bit strange for saying so. But seriously, my idea of winter is cold, with lots of snow and an occasional blizzard thrown in. But I wish everybody safe and warm in their houses when it hits. A number of years ago a guy we knew from another colony was in a truck when a blizzard hit, and he decided to cut across the field to go home, he got lost and confused, they found him the next morning sitting beside a tree. It was a sad funeral, he was so close to home, and even if he would have stayed in the truck as the other guy did, he would have made it.

I feel God's presence and almighty power in a storm. Makes me feel as small and insignificant as I am. Standing on a hill watching the uncoming storms, nothing compares. And truly I can sing then,"how great Thou art!" 

My God is an awesome God!